Democrats on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee claimed their GOP counterparts would “rue the day” they confirm FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, who is slated for a final vote Thursday afternoon and is expected to be approved.
“There’s no question here he is unqualified and unprepared,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said outside the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning.
“The only question is whether my Republican colleagues will do the right thing.”
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He warned that a vote in favor of Patel’s nomination “will haunt you.”
“You will rue the day of this vote if it’s in favor of Kash Patel, because the American people will hold you accountable, and we will make sure that the American people know about this vote,” he concluded.
The Senate will vote to end debate on Patel’s nomination in the late morning and conduct a final confirmation vote in the afternoon.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Judiciary Committee ranking member, led the morning press conference, telling reporters, “My Senate Republican colleagues are willfully ignoring myriad red flags about Mr. Patel, especially his recurring instinct to threaten retribution against his perceived enemies.”
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“This is an extremely dangerous flaw for someone who seeks to lead the nation’s most powerful domestic investigative agency for the next 10 years,” he added.
Durbin and the committee’s Democrats echoed claims they made earlier in the month about Patel directing terminations at the FBI already and allegedly lying during his confirmation hearing about it.
They said “highly credible” whistleblower reports pointed to Patel “personally directing the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his Senate confirmation for the role.”
But a representative for Patel’s nomination effort categorically denied the accusation and pushed back on Durbin’s claims that Patel had any involvement.
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The direction to begin terminating some FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review was handed down to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll last month, the day following Patel’s confirmation hearing.
Democrats pointed to the fact that Patel denied during the hearing having any knowledge about planned terminations of those involved in investigations involving former President Donald Trump.
According to a senior transition team official for Patel, the nominee had departed the capital the night of his hearing, flying home to Las Vegas, where he had “been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.”
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“Mr. Patel has been going through the confirmation process, and everything he has done since his nomination has been above board,” the official said in an interview earlier this month with Fox News Digital. “And any insinuation otherwise is false.”
In addition to his trip home to Vegas, Patel has also spent time hunting away from Washington, the official said, providing photographic evidence of Patel’s activities.
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